California Family Council, an Olympic athlete, a pastor, and statewide candidates stood outside the CIF State Track and Field Championships to say what those inside would not.
A male athlete from Jurupa Valley High School won two state titles in girls’ events at the 2026 CIF State Track and Field Championships this weekend. AB Hernandez took first place in the high jump and triple jump and third in the long jump, while female athletes were forced to share their podium spots with him. Outside the stadium gates on Friday, California Family Council held a press conference demanding CIF restore fairness to girls’ sports. Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton and State Superintendent candidate Sonja Shaw spoke out after the press conference, bringing the save girls’ sports issue to the forefront of the debate as voters head to the polls for tomorrow’s primary.
For the athletes inside the stadium, however, the moment was deeply personal. Female athletes were required to share their first- and third-place podium spots with Hernandez at each event he competed in. No one spoke out, no one complained, everyone acted like nothing was unusual. CFC board member Kyle Goddard, who attended the meet, believes that was precisely the point. “They are trying to normalize what is clearly a mental health issue,” he said.
The Rule Change That Said Everything
California Family Council held a press conference before the event, with other leaders across California, to give a voice to the many Californians who feel this situation is unfair. They called on CIF to repeal Bylaw 300D, the federation’s own policy allowing athletic participation based on gender identity rather than biological sex.
Sophia Lorey, CFC’s Outreach Director and a former CIF and collegiate athlete, told the assembled crowd of supporters, media, and elected officials that CIF’s podium rule change was not a solution. It was an admission.
“Instead of protecting the integrity of girls’ sports, CIF created a workaround that allows additional girls to advance and receive medals when a male athlete places ahead of them,” Lorey said. “Let’s be honest about what that means. It is a complete admission that CIF knows this is wrong. You do not create special exceptions and compensation policies unless you recognize that female athletes are being displaced.”
She called CIF’s practice of forcing girls to share a podium with a male athlete “a public humiliation ritual,” and demanded CIF return titles and placements to the girls who rightfully earned them and issue formal apology letters to every affected female athlete.
“To the men who are a part of CIF, to Governor Newsom, and to all the male California legislators who have allowed boys in girls’ sports and spaces: you are absolute cowards. Men protect women, not harm us.”
The Ballot Box
The debate over girls’ sports is rapidly becoming a defining issue in California’s statewide elections. Right after the Press Conference, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton and the president of the Chino Valley Unified School District Board and candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sonja Shaw, spoke to defend girls-only sports.
Shaw told supporters that protecting girls’ sports begins with electing leaders willing to act.
“Biological males do not belong in girls’ sports. Period,” Shaw said. “This is not about compassion. This is about fairness, safety, and truth. Title IX exists to protect females, not sacrifice them on the altar of this ideology.”
Shaw argued that California voters have the power to change course.
“California, you elect people who are willing to say, ‘No, we’re not going to do this on our watch anymore,'” she said. “You fix it at the ballot box.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton echoed that message while highlighting his year-long partnership with California Family Council on the issue.
“I am proud to stand with everyone here,” Hilton said. “I was proud to be here a year ago.”
Holding up a faded Save Girls’ Sports wristband given to him by CFC Outreach Director Sophia Lorey at last year’s championship meet, Hilton added, “Sophia gave me this wristband that says the simple common-sense truth, ‘Save Girls’ Sports,’ a year ago, and it’s faded because I’ve been wearing it all year. As I said to her then, I’ll repeat the same pledge now: I will wear this wristband that says the simple truth, ‘Save Girls’ Sports,’ until I actually save girls’ sports, which I will do with Sonja when we are elected and take back control of this state and restore common sense.”
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, also seeking the Republican nomination, but did not attend the press conference, has been equally direct. “Boys should not be competing against girls. As a coach, I absolutely know that boys have no place in girls’ sports,” Bianco said in his CBS News interview, adding that as governor, he would ensure no eighteen-year-old male is walking through a fourteen-year-old girl’s locker room.
Democratic candidates for statewide office have largely taken the opposite position.
Billionaire gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer dismissed concerns about males competing in girls’ sports as “a right-wing attempt to victimize and villainize already vulnerable and desperate people.” State Superintendent Tony Thurmond has likewise pledged to “protect the rights of transgender athletes to participate.”
Former Attorney General Xavier Becerra defended California’s current policy, saying, “If the rules allow an individual to play in that sport, those are the rules and you should abide by them.” Congresswoman Katie Porter has also expressed support for the current law and said the matter should remain with CIF.
As CIF continues allowing males to compete in girls’ events, voters will soon decide whether California’s political leadership should continue down the same path or chart a different course.
Leaders Speak Up For The Girls
Stephanie Brown Trafton, a three-time Olympian and Olympic gold medalist in discus, and a three-time California State High School Track and Field Champion, made her first public appearance on the issue at Friday’s press conference.
“I am here today not only to protect the legacy that I have built, but for the future of my daughters,” Trafton said. She read from CIF’s own student athlete code of conduct, which lists fairness as one of its six pillars: “Live up to the high standards of fair play.” She argued that allowing male athletes to compete in girls’ events violates that standard on its face.
Pastor Jim Franklin, Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church in Fresno, grounded the issue in both Scripture and science. He cited Genesis 1:27, “male and female created he them,” and data from the American College of Sports Medicine showing that males outperform females by 10 to 30 percent in events requiring aerobic capacity or muscle power.
“To make girls compete against boys is foolish. It’s wrong. It’s not fair. And it’s immoral,” Franklin said. “When women have to move over to allow a man to gain a win in a women’s sport, women lose their personal achievement, the awards they have committed their lives to accomplish, and the possibility for academic scholarships they need for college.”
Clovis Mayor Pro Tem Diane Pearce welcomed the athletes to her city and turned immediately to the issue at hand.
“Because CIF, Governor Newsom, and the state legislature have failed our female athletes, there is once again a distraction that hangs over this weekend’s events,” Pearce said. She noted that seventy-one percent of California public school parents want sports participation determined by biological sex, and that Sacramento has ignored them. She called on President Trump to follow through with pulling federal funding from California, saying the state will not change course until the cost of inaction becomes too high.
When Unfair Became Ordinary
Inside the stadium, the competition was anything but fair, yet everyone was expected to act as though nothing was wrong.
AB Hernandez won state titles in the girls’ high jump and triple jump and placed third in the long jump. Female athletes were forced to share podium positions with him, while CIF quietly expanded qualifying rules from advancing 9 athletes to 10 to accommodate his participation.
Yet the meet proceeded as normal. There was no public acknowledgment of the rule changes, no discussion of a male competing in girls’ events, and no recognition of the obvious unfairness many spectators had come to protest. Those wishing to voice opposition were directed to a designated “free speech area” across the school parking lot.
California Family Council board member Kyle Goddard attended the meet and said the atmosphere felt intentionally ordinary.
What troubled him most was watching girls adapt to circumstances they never should have been asked to accept.
“The sad truth is they have now been coached into thinking this is normal,” Goddard said. “They shouldn’t have to.”
The injustice was visible. The expectation was silence.
CFC will be back
“Three years ago in a CIF Federated Council meeting, we told CIF that if they didn’t solve this, we would make sure the whole state knows their name, the nation knows their name, the president knows their name,” Lorey said to close the press conference. “We keep our promises. We will continue to show up to stand for these girls until girls’ sports are once again protected in California.”
